Accused in London attack told police he was white nationalist, had planned ‘rampage,’ Crown tells jury

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A man charged with killing four members of a Muslim family as part of an alleged terrorist act motivated by white nationalism has admitted he was the person behind the wheel of the vehicle that slammed into them, a Crown prosecutor told jurors as testimony began Monday.

Crown attorney Sarah Shaikh told court that jurors would hear that Nathaniel Veltman was acting on a violent ideology that had motivated mass murders in Norway and New Zealand. She alleged that Mr. Veltman, now 22, confessed to police after his arrest, telling police he had no regrets and that his actions were “politically motivated, 100 per cent.”

She accused Mr. Veltman of writing a manifesto railing against Muslims and “mass immigration,” and she told jurors they would see startling video evidence of the deadly tragedy.

Mr. Veltman is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, and one count of attempted murder. The Crown contends each of these alleged crimes was motivated by terrorist ideology. It’s the first time the Crown has argued that white nationalism is a terrorist ideology in a Canadian prosecution. Legal observers say the case against Mr. Veltman will stand as a case study in how Canadian law enforcement is expanding the boundaries of terrorism prosecutions.

The trial of Mr. Veltman in Windsor, Ont., is expected to last two months. Ontario Superior Court Judge Renee Pomerance has ruled that it should not take place in London. On Monday, she told the jury the accused remains considered innocent of all allegations against him unless prosecutors prove otherwise.

Explainer: The London attack at the centre of one of Canada’s most closely watched trials

Court heard that while Mr. Veltman has pleaded not guilty to the charges, he does not dispute he was the driver of the pickup truck. Mr. Veltman watched the proceedings from the courtroom showing little expression.

Jurors were shown video footage of the night of June 6, 2021, when five members of the Afzaal family were out for a stroll in London, Ont.

In the video, some members of the family were wearing traditional Pakistani clothing known as the shalwar kameez as they were waiting to cross the road at a pedestrian crossing. That was when a Dodge Ram pickup truck with Mr. Veltman at the wheel struck them. The collision killed grandmother Talat, 74; parents Salman and Madiha, in their 40s; and their daughter Yumnah, 15. A nine-year-old son survived the attack.

Storefront security video played in court Monday showed the Dodge Ram driving past the Muslim family before the pickup U-turns, accelerates and then hops the sidewalk swerving toward them.

Though video of the impact was not played in court, the aftermath was discussed in detail. Crown attorney Jennifer Moser said in court that “the accelerator pedal was depressed at 100 per cent” at the time of the collision.

Ms. Shaikh told the jury that Mr. Veltman confessed after his arrest, allegedly saying that he had been searching for any group of Muslims in the city and that he started driving “pedal to the metal” when he saw the Afzaal family.

“I killed a bunch of people. Well, not a bunch – four,” Mr. Veltman later told police, according to Ms. Shaikh. “By crashing into them. … I knew what I did. I don’t regret what I did. I admit that it was terrorism.”

At the accident scene, the grandmother was immediately pronounced dead by paramedics. The parents arrived at hospital without vital signs. Only the children survived en route to hospital, but while the boy would recover from his broken femur, Yumnah stopped breathing shortly after she was taken into medical care.

Ms. Shaikh told court that planning for the June attack had started as early as that March. In May, Mr. Veltman ordered some of the body armour he would be wearing during his arrest. That same month he allegedly purchased the Dodge Ram truck with the intent of using it as a weapon.

According to the Crown, electronic devices that were later seized by police showed Mr. Veltman had been reading manifestos written by violent white supremacists – including a Norwegian gunman who killed 77 people in 2011 and a New Zealand gunman who killed 51 people at mosques in 2019. Mr. Veltman himself had penned a document called “A White Awakening,” the jury was told.

The Crown said that on June 6, Mr. Veltman went to work at his job in the nearby community of Strathroy, before he went home to his bachelor apartment in London, where he read the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto. That was allegedly at around 8 p.m., meaning that shortly afterward Mr. Veltman entered the Dodge Ram, which police say had several bladed weapons in it.

Minutes after the 8:40 p.m. collision, Mr. Veltman pulled his dented Dodge Ram into a mall plaza. Court heard fabric from the clothing of the Muslim women was stuck to the front of the pickup truck. A taxi driver called 911 as he saw Mr. Veltman exit his truck. Ms. Shaikh told the jury that in the background of that call, the suspect can be heard saying, “It was me. It was me that did it. So come and arrest me.”

The prosecutor told the jury that on the night of his arrest Mr. Veltman confessed to everything, at points saying, “I want the world to know what I did” and that “I was going to go on a rampage.”

Later he allegedly said that “I chose to go as brutal as I did because I thought I needed to send a strong message.”